


...

by orphan_account



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eudora Patch Lives, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Past Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch, Past Diego Hargreeves/Lila Pitts - Freeform, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29164878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Eudora Patch, Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch





	...

Diego’s mind felt boggled and hazy, confusion etching right along the surface. They were adamantly certain that this time would be different, that they wouldn’t make the same foolish mistake of inadvertently going back too far in time to where it would alter time and blunder them into another alternative universe.

After being stuck in the 60’s for months, inhabitant against his will in an asylum and away from his family Diego wanted nothing more than to return back to the 21st century. Sure, he met Lila and developed a relationship with her and had grown amorous feelings of mutual affection towards her (despite her initial betrayal). It was hard for him to open up to anyone emotionally after Eudora’s death. Hell, it was hard way before that. He’s always been keen on sheltering his emotions and feelings, talking about those sort of things weren’t common in the Hargreeves household.

Growing up with a father as stoic and emotionally ridden like Reginald Hargreeves, suppressing emotions and being emotionally detached was something that they’d grown accustomed to. At first, it bothered Diego especially when he was younger. But he often found solace in his mother and Ben, who he’d talk to about his struggles with his speech impediment or whenever he just simply needed someone to vent to.

As he got older, he realized that albeit his father’s tactics and ways of teaching them were questionable and on the precipice of abusive, he found that the one thing Reginald Hargreeves had taught them was right; never show any emotions.

He developed his father’s stoic countenance and insouciant attitude in addition with his own stubbornness. Although he despised his father greatly for the way he mistreated them as children, Diego knew that his father was right. Emotions and feelings only ever caused trouble. His feelings for Eudora got him in trouble. She had so much going for her prior to meeting him.

He’d gotten involved, too attached. Of course it didn’t work out between them. They spent the duration of two years being on-and-off until she decided to permanently call it quits. Diego couldn’t blame her. She had gotten exasperated of his late night vigilante escapades and his stubborn attitude. They spent relentless nights arguing about his safety and about how he was putting her in a conflicting position.

She gave him an ultimatum; his pseudo-crime-fighting-persona or her. He couldn’t choose so she chose for him. That was the end of their relationship. Even after they broke up, Diego made sure to stick around. He told Eudora that he only came around to make sure that she was safe (that was only half true), he mostly came around to see her. He had missed her immensely. He missed seeing her face, waking up next to her with her willowy hair splaying messily across the bedsheets smelling of lavender, he missed touching her, kissing her. He didn’t admit it to her even though he was certain that she already knew all of this.

She chided him whenever he would randomly pop in at crime scenes, doing his own investigation much to her dismay. He would smile at her chastising words, as she frowned at him in disapproval. She would threaten to turn him in if he interfered with a crime scene again, sometimes she would arrest him and bail him out hours later.

“God, Diego, why do you always do this? I told you this is police business let us handle it.” She huffs in annoyance, her gait prowling as she treaded ahead of him.

“The way you guys handle it is the exact reason why you never catch your perps. Maybe if you tried doing things my way once in a while things would actually get done around here!” He rebuttals, his tone marring an equal annoyance as hers. 

That wasn’t the first time he’d told her that. But it was the first time that she actually listened to him. They were talking one day, it was after Five’s hitmen friends raided the house in search of him. Diego had gone through a lot that day with having to deal with the trauma of killing his mother all while still processing Five’s return back as his younger self after years of disappearance.

It was a lot to handle. So he went to Eudora’s. He laid sprawled out on her porch, looking up at the azulejo hues of the sky as he waited for her to appear. He heard her front door opening, followed by the sound of her shoes connecting against the pavement of her porch. “Diego?” He could hear the confusion and worry in her voice.

He hasn’t been to her house since their breakup. It was too hard for him, too many shared memories that he didn’t want to be reminded of. He groaned inwardly as he sat up, from his peripheral view he could see her walking closer. She crouched down on the steps next to him.

“Are you okay?” She asks softly, her eyes assessing over his face in worry. He resisted the urge of scoffing humorlessly. Instead he shakes his head and lowers his gaze as he mindlessly fiddled with his fingers. He went into great depth about his mother’s death (leaving out his initial ‘murdering’ of her of course), and about Five’s disappearance.

She consoled him, he could see the trepidation weening on her face as she inwardly debated on whether or not she should touch him. In the end she decided against it and instead offered him words of reassurance. That was the last time he saw Eudora. 

Diego remembers feeling like his heart was slowly caving in, nearly swallowing his whole body when he saw Eudora laying there in the dingy motel room surrounded in a pool of her own blood. His throat was dry, eyes flooded with tears as his vision fogged.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” He asks, tears spilling onto her fawn ashen face as he cradled her body in his arms. Maybe you should try things my way. His words haunted him as they wandered around his brain. 

Guilt gnawed viciously at him. He’d told her to try things his way; which was head first without any backup or insight. And that was exactly what she did, acted on impulse in the same manner as he always did but instead it resulted in her being shot and killed. He never forgave himself. The pain and the memory of that night still haunted him daily.

Going into the 60’s and meeting Lila was  different.  He hadn’t intended on developing feelings for the young assassin. It felt traitorous to Eudora’s memory, liking another woman so soon. He was hesitant and denied his feelings for her at first. He didn’t want to risk anything happening to her in the same way that it did Eudora. 

The more he tried to deny it the more he started to like Lila. She was different from Eudora; wittier, snarky and a little bitchy. But he liked that. Finding out that she harbored the same powers that they did only further progressed his feelings for her. But as he started to indulge in his feelings for Lila, he couldn’t help but to feel like he was still betraying Eudora. 

Sure, Lila was fun and dangerous but she wasn’t Eudora; the first woman that Diego had fallen in love with. He hated that he was comparing them. Eudora was dead and Lila was here with him and she had admittedly reciprocated the feelings of attraction towards him. But that didn’t stop him from thinking about Eudora every night those past few months and every day following her death.

Being with Lila momentarily numbed the pain he was feeling. He hates it because he does actually like Lila. She just wasn’t Eudora.

When Five found a solution of getting them back to the 21st century, he thought about how he was leaving Lila right after he’d just revealed his love for her. He wasn’t exactly sure if he truly meant it or if he was saying it in the heat of the moment. All he did know was that he was leaving yet another woman that he cared about.

They arrived back at the Umbrella Academy in the decade where they belonged prior to the apocalypse but everything was different. The house, the symbols, their dad. Apparently it was now the Sparrow Academy, and Ben was alive. It was a lot of information to comprehend all in a matter of minutes.

They’d messed up again and altered the timeline.

“Five, what’s going on? I thought you said you were going to take us back to stop Vanya from creating the apocalypse?” Luther inquired, eyes wide with pension as he peered a look around the corner into the living room where the members of the Sparrow Academy were all gathered around conversing.

“Yeah! This shit’s weird. And Ben’s alive! Alive alive! Like I can see him without using my powers and he has that god awful hairstyle. That look doesn’t suit him.” Klaus mutters, shaking his head in disapproval as his eyes wandered over to Ben heeding in his apparel.

Luther and Diego rolled their eyes at their brother’s distractingly short attention span. “Is this even the right year? We are in 2019 right?” Diego asked, chancing a glance over at Five who stood athwart from him with his face contorted in a furrow almost as if he was thinking.

“I think so.” He mutters, chewing on his lip in thought. “My calculations were precise this time I made sure of it.”

“Well, obviously not if Ben and Dad are alive and the Umbrella Academy is now the Sparrow Academy,” Allison sighs, folding her arms akimbo as she perched her hands onto her hips.

“No, no. There’s probably an anomaly. We altered the timeline by going back into the 60’s which caused this timeline to transform into an alternative universe within itself.” Five congresses. He looks up to see his siblings deadpanning a confused look at him, not sure of what he’d just said. He sighs deeply as he began to articulate his meaning.

“Every time he time travel there’s a consequence, right? We either jump back too far or too behind or we change something in the present. That’s what happened here. It wasn’t my math it was us,  _again_.” He says, defeatedly throwing his hands in the air.

He’d work so intently on trying to assuage the exact calculations so they could return back to their time. Now everything’s all blundered again and there was no telling what was soon in store for them in this timeline. Luckily, his father was alive in this time so Five could ask him for help so that they could go back to the way things were supposed to be.

If only his dad would talk to him. “Why are you still here? I asked you to make your abrupt departure from my house. I do not know any of you nor do I want to. Leave immediately or I will call the authorities.” Reginald Hargreeves threatened when he sauntered in the front room to see them all crowded around standing there.

“Dad, we–” Luther’s mouth clamped shut immediately in regret the moment the words fell from his lips. 

But Reginald‘s facial expression and posture remained in tact and nonchalant by Luther’s inadvertent slip up. “As I said before, I do not know any of you. But one thing I do know is thatI’m certainly not your father. I will not further indulge this mockery of a joke you’re trying to pull on me. I run a respectable Academy and you six appear to be rejects, longing for a place to call home for stability. Your father, whoever he may be would be disappointed as you all appear to be the most pathetic looking group of people I’ve ever encountered. A man who is unnaturally ape grotesque, a child that looks as if he hasn’t even thronged through puberty, a man-child wearing a silk sheer shirt with a skirt—”

Allison rolls her eyes at her father’s berating words. “Are you done insulting us?”

“Leave my house this instant or I will call the police.” Reginald assertively proclaimed. He adjusted the monocle on his eye before turning around and walking off.

When he’s out of earshot, Five turns around to face his siblings each of them looking weary and defeated just as he felt. “I’ll figure this out. In the meantime I think we should leave, Dad’s never been a bluffer. The last thing we need is to get arrested for trespassing.”

“Leave and go where exactly?” Vanya inquired, asking the question that they’d all been thinking. This was a different year, there was no telling how substantially things had changed due to the alterations. They didn’t have anyone not that Vanya had anyone prior to the apocalypse.

Five shrugged, throwing his hands defeatedly in the air. “Must I have to think of everything? I don’t know. Weren’t you living in an apartment before all of this and Diego,” He averts his attention to his brother, pointing a finger. “Weren’t you living in some shabby basement in a boxing ring as a janitor?” He turns to Allison, “And I believe you have a daughter, right?”At this, Allison’s eyes welled up in tears at the mention of Claire.

“Things might have changed but we don’t know exactly how much. We should all go see how our lives changed since the jump back in time. I’ll find us somewhere to sleep in the meanwhile. Then I have to somehow miraculously convince Dad to help me figure out a solution on how to get us back to the right time, again.” 

Klaus scrunched his nose up as he whined, flopping his arms around like a petulant child. “Do we really have to go through this again? 2018 was a very rough year for me. I almost died nearly every day, it was a travesty.” 

Five deadpanned an unamused look at Klaus, “Maybe you should try staying away from the drugs, then. They’re gnawing at the little brain cells you have left anyway.” He insults, sliding his hands inside the front slacks of his pockets. His berating retort causes Klaus to gasp in offense. 

“Hey! You little fucker, I resent that!” Klaus rebuttals, his lips jutting downward in a moue frown. 

“Okay, okay.” Luther says, stepping forward and placing a hand between Klaus and Five, trying to calm the situation down before it escalated into something treacherous. “Insulting each other isn’t going to make this situation any better. We have to do something.”

Five sniggers and shakes his head, “Wow, Luther. That was very smart. It’s also exactly what I just said a few minutes ago. I’ll think of something but right now, I need a warm beer and a nap.” He says before walking off towards the front door and stepping out into the sidewalk.

The siblings followed suit, finally making their egress from their old childhood home.

“I’m going to go home to see Claire. Maybe I can salvage my marriage and my relationship with my daughter before it all completely turns to shit.” Allison spoke, her arms wrapped around herself as she spoke with a hopeful insight. Luther’s eyes wandered over to her, they shared a despondent look before Allison averted her eyes away. 

_Claire_.  If things with Claire and Allison’s husband weren’t completely tarnished yet maybe; Diego sprinted down the street, ignoring the bellowing clamoring of his siblings calling after him asking where he was going. He continued to run, weaving his way through the pedestrians that were walking on the sidewalk as he ran in the direction of her house. It was 2018 that meant that Patch was still alive. He had to go see her to be positively sure but something deep within him knew that his intuition was right.

He was out of breath by the time he reached her house. Everything appeared to be the same, her little red car was still parked out in the front of the driveway. Maybe things hadn’t changed, Diego thought hopeful.  


His heart was pounding against his chest as he scrounged up the courage to walk up the stairs that led to her porch. He was nervous that she wouldn’t remember him or that she wouldn’t want to see him. 

But pushing through those feelings of apprehension, Diego continued to walk towards her door. He had to see her, he had to know that she was here, alive and okay. His hands grew sodden with sweat, mouth went completely dry. He brought his hand up mid-air, exhaling a deep breath before rapting a knock against the door. He waited patiently for what seemed like hours but in reality had only been a few seconds. 

His pulse posthasted when he heard the pattering of footsteps ascending near.He shifted nervously, fiddling with his clothing as he waited. Diego drew in a soft breath when he sees the door knob twisting, revealing Eudora standing athwart from him on the other side. 

Diego gasped at the sight of her. She looked the same, only slightly thinner. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, loose flyaways dangled from the bun. She was dressed in casual clothing; an oversized shirt and a pair of black biker shorts. A pair of fuzzy socks were worn on her feet. When she opened the door to see Diego standing there, she smiled softly at him but the smile quickly dissipated and transformed into a frown of worry. 

“Uh, yes-” Her sentence is interjected by Diego who approached her in haste, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight hug. 

Eudora stood there taut, unsure of what  was going on. She eventually reciprocated the gesture and hugged him back, chuckling awkwardly. “Uh, what’s going on?” 

Diego inhaled her familiarizing scent; a citrusy, floral fragrance as his head nuzzled against her neck. The loose curls of her hair tickled against his face as he breathed her in. His arms tightened around her, reveling in the fact that she was here and alive like he’d hoped. He felt a thick lump enclosing in the hollow of his throat.

“You’re here.” He chuckled and as he pulled away, looking into her eyes. Wide and filled with worry.

She looked so beautiful, more beautiful than he remembered. He tried so hard to forget about her during his time in the sixties, but of course failed terribly. He envisioned this day numerous times. What he’d do if he was ever given the opportunity to see her again. Now he finally got the opportunity. 

Eudora blinks, her face furrowing in a confused frown. Her head tilts to then side as her curiosity accruingly piqued. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” She questioned, her big, doe, brown eyes blinking up at him in wonderment as confusion painted the features of her face.

At first, Diego assumed that she’d just been teasingly playing with him as if he was on the receiving end of some cruel joke. But the longer he stood there staring at her, the more cautious she seemed by his presence. 

He notices the way she takes a preemptive step away from him as she handles a grip on her door knob. 

She wasn’t kidding. This wasn’t a joke. She _really_ didn’t remember him. Diego feels his heart nearly shattering into a million pieces at his horrible revelation.

Panic begins to settle within him. “Dora,” He calls out, softly, the nickname was previously a term of endearment that he used when they were together.

But this Eudora, the one in this alternate universe didn’t appear to like the coined nickname nor did she seem to like Diego’s presence.   
  
“Look–” She asserts, narrowing her eyes in a scowl at him. Normally, he wouldn’t fawned adoringly at how cute she looked when she was mad.

But he was too frantic and concerned with the fact that she didn’t know who he was. “I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but I just want to let you know that I’m a cop. So whatever it is that you’re trying to go just know that I won’t hesitate to defend myself if needed!”

Diego’s face is crestfallen, pain further accrues. “Dora, you really think that I would _ever_ do something to hurt you?” He knows that she doesn’t know his identity, but he would’ve thought that their connection was strong enough for any version of her to know how he truly felt about her.   
  
He guesses he was wrong. 

“I don’t even know who you are!” Eudora rebuttals in frustration. “But what I do know is that you need to get your ass off of my property.”

Diego nodded somberly, being docile of her commands and turning around to leave as he didn’t want to upset her even further. He tries to ignore the gut-wrenching feeling of his heart breaking in a million pieces as he walks off with the realization that Eudora didn’t know who he was.

It was a long shot, he knows for her to remember. They’d altered the tone like so much it was almost a naive hope that they would return and he would be able to reconcile and start working on repairing his relationship with Eudora. Still there was a small inkling of hope that resided amongst him through it all.

It had now demised.

\- 

Diego sighed deeply as he plopped down on the small twin sized bed, he pushed at Klaus’ legs as he was currently sprawled out on the bed with his head propped up on the palm of his hand. 

“Scoot over. This bed’s already small.” He grumbled, leaning against the headboard. Klaus groaned in complaint as he sat up.

“Jesus, who shat in your oatmeal this morning?”

Diego narrows his eyebrows at his brother, his face twisting in a confused frown. “That’s not how the saying goes.”

Klaus shrugged his shoulders as he climbed off of the bed and trotted towards the dresser, where he retrieved another piece of lukewarm pizza from the box. He bit into the greasy cheese pizza, talking with his mouth full.

He waved a hand in nonchalance, “Same difference. You’ve been acting like an asshole all morning and I want to know why. Did you run into the old man? ‘Cause seeing him makes me upset too.”

Diego shook his head and huffed deeply. While Klaus was probably the sibling he trusted the most (yes, even given his instability with drugs and alcohol), he was the person that Diego felt he could confide in the most. But even given those reasons, Diego was reluctant on telling Klaus about the issue with Eudora.

He’s always been sheltered when it came to vocalizing his feelings and talking about Eudora was a heavy topic for him. 

“I’m just tired, I guess.” Diego shrugged, wearily running a hand down his face. Klaus feigns a skeptical glare at him, raising a brow and staring at him with a look of disbelief.

Nonetheless, whether Klaus upheld any belief in Diego’s excuse he decided not to further prod him in inquiry, which Diego was grateful for. 

“Well,” Klaus chucked the half eaten slice of pizza back into the box, wiping his hand onto a paper towel. “I talked to Five yesterday, he said that he’s still working on that plan of getting dad to help us. If you ask me that sounds like a failure waiting to happen because that man cares about nothing but himself but the kid seems optimistic.” 

Diego was surprised by the delay of Five’s sought out plan. Usually, he would’ve been more assertive in trying to convince their day in assisting them in getting back to their original time. Not that he was complaining––he wanted to spend as much time with Eudora as he could. 

Snorting in disbelief, Diego nodded his head in agreement. “That’s one thing we all can agree on: dad’s selfishness. It never fails. Speaking of, where’s Five and the others anyway?”

Pushing a few strands of hair out of his face, Klaus made a few indistinguishable noises as he frailed his hand around, vaguely gesturing outside. “Eh, living their lives I supposed. Allison’s trying to salvage her marriage and is catching up for the lost time with Claire. Last I heard, Luther was staying with Five. Wonder how  that’s going.” He jeers, his voice lilting in amusement. “And Vanya, she called said she’s back at her old place. I think she’s still hurting over leaving Sissy behind.” 

“So, basically everything’s the same?”

Klaus pursed his lip in thought, his face furrowing in confusion before he shrugs a shoulder after a moment’s contemplation. “Basically.” 

Diego spent another hour and a half hanging out with Klaus. They mostly sat in the hotel room watching a few of Klaus’ favorite movies; cheesy romcoms and spy movies (which Diego didn’t oppose to). Afterwards, they played a few games of Uno which Diego won most of the rounds


End file.
